For what Chambers says is the last installment in this series, she gives us My Dinner With Andre, with aliens. The plot does not relate to the characters at all--a disastrous satellite accident strands a set of aliens at a space truck stop/motel with nothing to do but interact with each other. The intent is in no way disguised so this is fine.
The aliens are all humanoid and represent various ways of being human. A human is offstage (the Aeulon Pei's boyfriend) and is the only mentioned human, but the aliens represent various social types here on Earth--privileged (the Aeulons), xenophilic (the Laru), xenophobic (the Quelin), and oppressed (the Akarak). They come from different circumstances but basically share a value of caring for others that drives the interactions in the book, as it does for the others in this series.So really Chambers is only trying to do one thing in this book and that's show how very different people can get along with each other. And she does it very well. It is a heartwarming read from end to end in a coldhearted time in world history. My quibble with it would be that despite the differences the aliens are really very close together in personality. Real people differ more fundamentally than these "aliens" and it's more challenging to see each other's humanity. And the moral blind spots of the more privileged ones are brought up, but not really worked. Still it accomplishes what Chambers wants, which is to allow us to hope and breathe for a bit. Would give it a 3.6 and round it up.
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